Known automated manufacturing equipment using electrode/cathode systems for manufacturing semiconductors typically use automated loading and unloading arms to move semiconductor material to and from electrodes. To ensure the proper loading and and unloading of semiconductor material onto electrodes, each autoloading arm needs to be aligned with respect to the electrode so that the material may be deposited correctly upon the electrode and received correctly from the electrode during manufacturing. If the loading arm and the unloading arm are misaligned with respect to each other, then the material may be deposited or received incorrectly from the electrode. As a result, the material might drop and break. The breakage of semiconductor material during the manufacturing process reduces yield, and, accordingly, increases the cost of production.
One prior method of ensuring that an autoloading arm deposits and unloads material from the correct position on the electrode requires a manual centering of the loading or unloading arm. Specifically, an operator loosens tension screws on the loading or unloading arm being aligned, moves the arm into the proper position relative to the electrode, and tightens the adjusting screws so that the arm will load or unload from the correct position. These steps are taken for both arms.
One disadvantage of the prior method of centering the loading and unloading arms is that the arms might not be percisely adjusted. If the arms are not precisely adjusted, the material may be loaded incorrectly. As a result, the material might break during loading or unloading.
Another disadvantage of the manual method of adjusting the loading and unloading arms is that it takes a relatively long period of time for an operator to adjust the loading and unloading arms precisely.